Hi Tony

My 9/71 Clubman GT (YG2S8 734) has pedal box on the left with 1 prong cut off and my 11/72 GT (YG2S8 1330) has the pedal box in the centre. Both original to the cars.
A number GT owners findings on facebook aligned with what GTO Green has mentioned.
So those dates you mention may have been the approval dates of the parts? but they were not fitted to the cars until much later.

Thats interesting and thanks for sharing the NAA records

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Tony.

Looking through the SS ADR correspondence there are a few mentions of car 20816 as being an SS. Quite possibly the first comparing it to other known cars. The problem is they have quoted the S prefix 022D2S1M09 instead of 022D2S3M09.

Do you have any thoughts on the prefix? Do you think its a typo or do you think this was an S they just grabbed off the line and converted it to an SS?

Eightfifty have I misread something or are you now say Peter Davis was in charge of Product Engineering

"Mutch worked in Product Engineering, where Peter Davis was the manager."

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Enjoy your Mini
Regards
John Sneddon

Even though the above has nothing to do with the actual thread topic, I will clarify: Peter David was the Administation Manager for Product Engineering at Waterloo, and Manager, Product Development at Moorebank. In the mid 1960s, Product Engineering (Zetland) consisted of three main sections, headed by Chief Design Engineer (Hamilton), Chief Experimental Engineer, (Fulford) and Administration Engineering Manager (Scanlon) all reporting to Chief Product Engineer (Serjeantson). Davis took over from Scanlon when Scanlon died road testing a prototype Austin 1800 in the country. By the mid seventies, names of departments had shifted a bit, but Peter remained Administration Manager, Product Engineering until 1974 before going to Enfield. Mutch (probably) reported to Peter. In later years, responsbility for safety and compliance was the responsibility of Alan Dickenson who then also reported to Peter. To suggest that Peter was a "clerical person" is a total misrepresentation of his position. I hope that clears up any question.

I think we can leave this now and concentrate on the topic.

The first Leyland Mini SS was of course based on a Leyland Mini S, but painted metallic, and fitted with extras, and then shown to MD Andrew at Bondi. It would have been just 022X2S1 at that time since the model had not yet been approved or produced as a stock item. There was a mixup of Type Codes with YDO22 with them being incorrectly stamped 022X2S2 instead of 022X2S1. By mid 1975, the error was corrected so that YDO22 was 022X2S1 and YDO21 was 021X2S1. The "luxury" level indicates the lowest level of luxury for that model, even if the lowest level was fairly luxurious, as is the case for YDO22. But, by the time of the SS, 0222S2 had already been used, so to avoid confusion, it was assigned luxury level "3". Brad, the car you've identified in the document could well have been the first SS shown to Bondi Junction and well spotted. By this time of course, YDO21 and YDO22 were sharing Serial Numbers so production totals are difficult to establish for each model. Regards, Tony

Edit: I might also add for the benefit of MR Rialto that the first 1275cc Mini LS were stamped M09 in much the same way as above.

The dates I quote are dates "released for production", and would be somewhat earlier than when that part was actually fitted to allow for use up of existing stock and manufacture of stock of the new part. So yes, I agree with you Brenton.

Hi I am interested in your mention of the Metalic paint. I bought my Leyland Mini S 1100 in June 1975. And the salesman at the time said when I picked it up that this was the first Metalic Mini they had seen. Would that be correct. I attach a picture of the sales tax invoice, I hope this adds to the sum total of facts Re these cars.
Regards John

Have you got a photo of the car? Nutmeg and Omega Navy were let over metallic colours from P76 and there were gallons of it to use up and the SS was the perfect excuse for doing so. It's amazing you have a car from mid 75 painted in this colour. Must have been a special order. Special orders were sometimes in the offing. Works Manager John Rose had a tricked up Mini S made with SS extras as well as a sunroof for his wife. When it was finished, some bigwig from Bondi Junction caught sight of it at Enfield and commandeered it for himself and John lost it. This was a gold car, and I have a photo of it somewhere.

Just scans of old photos I am afraid. I have never seen another in this colour. Wish I could find my old car again. SA rego dept. lasted had it listed in the 90’s and was Red then.

Great to see a photo of the car in its original state. But, you can't keep them all. Here's a picture of John Rose's car. John was a fairly senior manager at the factories and was in charge of buildings and works. He had little to do with the actual vehicles. Senior managers would have a company car of course, and most of the time, they were cars that had been returned under warranty and could not be fixed to a showroom standard. It was common also for executive staff to have a lease arrangement for a second car for the wife, and this is what John had ordered - but unfortunately someone more senior to him saw it and wanted it for themselves. He was not amused. As you can see, it had the best of everything. 998cc (the 1275 not having been developed at this time).

Its badged as an LS..... wouldn't it just be a standard 998LS with a sunroof?
I know the light blue 998LS came with dark blue vinyl roof, so assume the other colours could have also?
Otherwise looks like a pretty normal LS?

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I think you'll find the colour is the 1275 LS colour and not 998cc colour.

Sorry, I am not following.
The 1275LS nugget gold colour was also available with a 998 (not sure if only 78 though)

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According to John, he said it was a 998cc with a sunshine roof and 1275 LS colour. I don't have a picture of the inside. In the Dulux colour charts, it lists Nugget Gold as a 1978 exterior colour, but I don't know for sure what year this car is. Sunshine's ceased in late 77 so it must be either late 77 or early 78. I think the main point is that staff (and maybe even the general public) could order something special if they wanted to or had the right connections and the metallic nutmeg of 1975 of jaybee's car would be non-standard at that time.

The discussion about metallic paint and options in this thread reminded me of the following Dealer sales aid that details how a car could be tailored for the customer.

See the mention of "special metallic paint" for the LS.

Note: Click on an image to enlarge it, and click again to enlarge further.

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ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43